The Corona 3 replaced the Standard Folding in 1912. It was one of the most successful machines in typewriter history, with more than 600,000 machines built and sold over a period of almost 30 years. The machine presented here was built around 1919.

Assembly of the Corona 3 (photo: P&C Weil collection)

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The folding Corona 3 (the model number follows the Standard Folding models 1 and 2) originally appeared as a machine with pivot bearing type bars (see the Piccola for details) with shift keys only on the left. Later, the machine was built with a regular segment to hold the typebars (like the one shown here), shift keys on the left and right and other improvements. In the late 1920s Corona introduced a range of Corona Specials, in different bright colors, like red, green and blue. The main design however, with the forward folding carriage remained the same through the decades. Unchanged also remained the way the serial number of each machine was clumsily scratched into the underside of the carriage, although it was also neatly printed on the inside of the rear panel.

In 1926 the Corona factory merged with the L.C. Smith Typewriter Company to form the Smith-Corona company.

Corona 3 tripod (Photo: Costa collection)

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The Corona company produced a number of special accessories for the machine, such as the label holder (pic 6) and a special tripod that allowed the machine literally to be used in the field. The tripod also had a foldout section on the side for copy or notes. This tripod is very rare and the value exceeds that of the actual machine many times.

The Corona Folding was exported and sold to different countries and is not an uncommon sight on flea markets around the USA and Europe.